Macho men do better with a woman’s touch

Women are still seen as token representatives on company boards and government quotas may be necessary to change that, according to prominent female director
Elizabeth Proust
.

The women who do make it on to top company boards are often drawn from the “usual suspects" and real cultural change is yet to occur, the chairman of Nestlé Australia and director of Perpetual said yesterday.

“I don’t think that there has been much cultural change because I think too many people are seeing it as just a target . . . pressure is now on to get women on your board, which is great but it won’t necessarily lead to a cultural change," Ms Proust said.

“A few years ago I would have said I’m not in favour of quotas or targets, but I think not in my grandchildren’s lifetime will we get to Norway’s standard without some form of mandate from government," Ms Proust told an Australian Institute of Company Directors lunch in Melbourne.

From next year, the Australian Securities Exchange will require listed companies to disclose the number of women in their organisation and senior management and have their board set gender targets. There will be no ramifications for poor disclosure or performance apart from public scrutiny.

The number of female directors at the top 200 companies has risen this year from 8.3 per cent in 2008 to 10.4 per cent. Australia is 24th best internationally.

Ms Proust said her greatest concern was that 62 per cent of the top 200 companies don’t have any women in executive management.

“I’m chairman of Nestlé Australia and we know who our consumers are," she said. “They don’t look like the boards of corporate Australia. They are younger, they are more ethnically diverse.

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“Probably 75 to 80 per cent of our consumers are women . . . that makes no business sense at all. Corporate Australia still views women as wives and secretaries. That is an enormous waste of talent and education," Ms Proust told the lunch of predominantly women.

The outspoken comments come as research into the performance of women on boards published yesterday found striking results. Insync Surveys studied 105 boards and 849 directors.

It found boards with more women were much more likely to use board evaluations, codes of conduct and conflict of interest guidelines.

Boards with women were less likely to be satisfied that executive pay packages were appropriate: 50 per cent compared with 66 per cent for male-dominated boards.

“The presence of women actually changes and moderates the behaviour of men, making them more likely to be considerate, consistent and respectful," said Nicholas Barnett, the chairman of Insync.

“Gender diverse boards add more value and macho male boards do things in a very different way."